Space Apps Challenge : Congratulations to the winners!
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is proud to have participated in the 12th annual NASA Space Apps Challenge, with a record number of over 1300 participants in Canada! From to , participants were invited to create innovative applications and solutions to different challenges using satellite data from 13 international space agency partners.
This year the CSA provided about 60 Canadian open resources and datasets to help participants around the world with their challenges. In addition, two Canadian challenges were offered for participants to tackle. The objective of the first challenge, "Too long, didn't read: what's up in space?", was to take large amounts of data and present it in a way that allows decision-makers to get the information they need at a glance.
As for the second challenge, "Curiosity Collective," the objective was to design or promote a citizen science project using Canadian open data. Each challenge was offered in two streams based on level of complexity: Stargazer (regular) and Moonwalker (advanced). This is a way for the CSA to encourage various participation levels, including youth and coding beginners. Participants also had the option to take on one of NASA's many challenges.
A record number of 12 Canadian cities took part in the hackathon. Either on site or online, participants joined forces with people from various backgrounds, professions, and interests. This 48-hour event was filled with learning, innovating, and opportunities for the participants to challenge themselves in new ways. The CSA would like to thank all the local organizers for their contribution to the success of the edition of the Space Apps Challenge.
Winners
The CSA is happy to announce the winners of its Space Apps Stargazer challenge:
- First place – The Science Professor (Inuvik): Narek Hambardzumyan
- Narek tackled the Curiosity Collective challenge to explain why the CASSIOPE satellite is important for studying space weather.
- Second place – The Space Place (Inuvik): Davit Hambardzumyan
- Davit also tackled the Curiosity Collective challenge. His project goes into detail about the importance of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission and why we need it as Canadians.
- Third place – GeoSpace Explorers (Calgary): Nicole Tan and Ante Rakotoarison
- For the Too Long, Didn't Read challenge, this team designed an interactive educational app for students in grades 5 to 7. The objective of the app is to enhance their understanding of space-related topics and satellite launches.
The CSA is happy to announce the winners of its Space Apps Moonwalker challenge:
- First place – Space Ninjas (Toronto): Mishal Vellani, Farees Ahmed, Hajer Al Obeidli, Giuliano De Francesco, and Kyle Truong
- This team took on the Curiosity Collective challenge. They created the Blaze Alert app, which aims to improve emergency declarations and enable direct communication for all Canadian communities.
- Second place – Fire link (Halifax): Aniq Elahi, Jasper Grant, Aishik Sanyal, Christian Simoneau, and Paras Nath Seth
- To solve the Too Long, Didn't Read challenge, this team created a software map with real-time updatable satellite and aerial photography maps that allows for up-to-the-second information about fires and other natural disasters.
- Third place – Error418 (Toronto): Sterling Huang, Sebastian Arellano-Rubach, Soham Chakraborty, Lucas Craiu, Tony Yuan, and Jarmin Weng
- This team came up with a creative solution to the Curiosity Collective challenge. They created a Web application that gives everyone the possibility of admiring the beauty of space through a specialized algorithm to generate music that captures the hidden secrets of space.
Congratulations to the finalists and winners! We hope to see you at the event.